• April 4, 2008 |

    Norton Rose seals Bombardier-Metronet deal

    Norton Rose has advised train manufacturer Bombardier on the settlement of a major contracts dispute with London Underground's troubled maintenance and upgrading contractor, Metronet Rail. Under the terms of the agreement, Bombardier will pay £95m to Invensys - the parent of Westinghouse Rail Systems, which had been sub-contracted by Bombardier to supply new signalling for a number of the network's sub-surface lines.

    1 minute read

  • April 3, 2008 |

    Lovells jumps 38 places to storm M&A top three

    Lovells jumped 38 places to storm into the top three firms by value for UK M&A deals in the first quarter. Mergermarket rankings for Q1 M&A in the UK show the firm advised on 14 deals over the period worth a total of E148.7bn (£116.9bn), taking it from 41st place at the end of 2007 to third by value and from 20th place to seventh by volume.

    1 minute read

  • April 3, 2008 |

    Asia booms and London holds ground as IPOs slow in 2007

    City partners focusing on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) are watching the market closely after the volume of initial public offerings (IPOs) fell by 32% during 2007. PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC's) 2007 annual IPO report - released last month - revealed that AIM saw 220 IPOs in 2007, compared with 325 in 2006, resulting in a drop in value of E4bn (£3bn) to hit E9.5bn (£7.5bn). The fall in activity meant money raised in the London markets as a whole generally fell by 7% to E39.08bn (£31bn).

    1 minute read

  • April 2, 2008 | International Edition

    Dentons, SJ Berwin check out £1.2bn Sainsbury's property JV

    Denton Wilde Sapte and SJ Berwin have won lead roles advising supermarket giant Sainsbury's on a £1.2bn property joint venture with British Land. Dentons beat a host of panel firms to win the lead role for Sainsbury's, fielding a team under property partner Andrew Bedford and corporate partners Richard Macklin and Matthew Tinger. The joint venture is part of the store's attempts to unlock value from its sizeable real estate portfolio.

    1 minute read

  • April 2, 2008 |

    Dentons, SJ Berwin check out £1.2bn Sainsbury's property JV

    Denton Wilde Sapte and SJ Berwin have won lead roles advising supermarket giant Sainsbury's on a £1.2bn property joint venture with British Land. Dentons beat a host of panel firms to win the lead role for Sainsbury's, fielding a team under property partner Andrew Bedford and corporate partners Richard Macklin and Matthew Tinger. The joint venture is part of the store's attempts to unlock value from its sizeable real estate portfolio.

    1 minute read

  • April 2, 2008 |

    Middle East and India: The new road to riches

    It is easy to become blase about the significance of law firms entering a new market in their droves, and for the pace of change in that market to become a platitudinous talking point among lawyers.But it was not that long ago that some lawyers in the Middle East outposts of City firms routinely took advantage of the Gulf weekend being on Thursdays and Fridays, by rolling the local weekend into the Western weekend for a bumper four-day rest, leaving three days to get their weekly work done. Now it is more common for Gulf lawyers to work both weekends, such is the volume of business being done in the region.

    1 minute read

  • April 1, 2008 |

    Freshfields, A&O head queue for £20m Northern Rock bonanza

    Northern Rock has paid out more than £20m to law firms and accountants over the course of its struggle for survival, it has emerged, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) both in line for bumper pay-days. According to its latest annual report, published yesterday (31 March), Northern Rock paid £21.2m in professional fees in the second half of 2007 before its controversially nationalisation.

    1 minute read

  • March 28, 2008 |

    Sovereign funds to drive '08 M&A - report

    Sovereign wealth funds and a rise in corporate defaults are likely to drive M&A activity over the next 12 months, according to new research published by Mergermarket. The latest Global M&A and Debt Market Outlook survey of US and European executives and advisers found 64% of respondents predicting an increase in corporate defaults. Seventy percent expected such a rise in the US, with 50% anticipating an increase in Europe over the same period.

    1 minute read

  • March 28, 2008 | International Edition

    Dentons in for Sainsbury's £1bn British Land JV

    Denton Wilde Sapte and SJ Berwin have won lead roles advising supermarket giant Sainsbury's on a £1.2bn property joint venture with British Land. Dentons saw off a host of panel advisers to win the lead role for Sainsbury's, fielding a team under property partner Andrew Bedford and corporate partners Richard Macklin and Matthew Tinger. The joint venture is part of the store's attempts to unlock value from its sizeable real estate portfolio.

    1 minute read

  • March 28, 2008 |

    Dentons in for Sainsbury's £1bn British Land JV

    Denton Wilde Sapte and SJ Berwin have won lead roles advising supermarket giant Sainsbury's on a £1.2bn property joint venture with British Land. Dentons saw off a host of panel advisers to win the lead role for Sainsbury's, fielding a team under property partner Andrew Bedford and corporate partners Richard Macklin and Matthew Tinger. The joint venture is part of the store's attempts to unlock value from its sizeable real estate portfolio.

    1 minute read